03-30-2017, 07:45 PM
Though I don't believe there have been any studies done on the long-term effects of beta-blocker usage, such as propranolol, I believe that what Charon wrote about staying on it for 6 weeks makes the most sense.
I've never read the inside pamphlet for propranolol but a 6-weeks maximum is something I believe to be very reasonable for a couple reasons.
Firstly, I am sure that the 6 weeks is for people taking propranolol daily to combat hypertension. Using it sparingly for presentations, social events, etc. you can take it longer. Unless of course presentations, social events, etc. IS YOUR JOB! Beta-blockers are truly an amazing class of molecules that suppress the release of adrenaline from your adrenal glands and whether you like it or not, adrenaline is secreted by your body everyday in varying doses (not just when you get panicky or put into a situation where your body goes into fight-or-flight mode) keeping you alert when you drive, when you meet someone new, when a horrible news story is just read and so on. And by continually suppressing it, your body's homeostasis will get out-of-whack just like with any other drug.
The second reason is more scientificky and I probably shouldn't try and go into the nitty-gritty details of it...but propranolol is one of the few, very few drugs that contains a
naphthalene nucleus in the molecule. Currently in the scientific community, especially with medicinal chemists, there is simply not much known about how they get broken down through oxidative processes in the body (because they can be subjected to many, many more pathways than other pharmacores). But if you were a trained medicinal chemist today working on improving a drug's potency, and a colleague in your team were to propose using a naphthalene ring as the nucleus to increase potency or binding affinity, they would be met with raised eyebrows and be questioned out the whazoo as to where the hell their logic came from and might even look foolish.
Nonetheless, propranolol is a fantastic medicine in my opinion and I always have a stock of 30 or so if I have to get up in front of large audiences and give presentations...I always though I would outgrow my fear of public speaking by continually doing it and that one day it would just go away....NOPE!
I've never read the inside pamphlet for propranolol but a 6-weeks maximum is something I believe to be very reasonable for a couple reasons.
Firstly, I am sure that the 6 weeks is for people taking propranolol daily to combat hypertension. Using it sparingly for presentations, social events, etc. you can take it longer. Unless of course presentations, social events, etc. IS YOUR JOB! Beta-blockers are truly an amazing class of molecules that suppress the release of adrenaline from your adrenal glands and whether you like it or not, adrenaline is secreted by your body everyday in varying doses (not just when you get panicky or put into a situation where your body goes into fight-or-flight mode) keeping you alert when you drive, when you meet someone new, when a horrible news story is just read and so on. And by continually suppressing it, your body's homeostasis will get out-of-whack just like with any other drug.
The second reason is more scientificky and I probably shouldn't try and go into the nitty-gritty details of it...but propranolol is one of the few, very few drugs that contains a
naphthalene nucleus in the molecule. Currently in the scientific community, especially with medicinal chemists, there is simply not much known about how they get broken down through oxidative processes in the body (because they can be subjected to many, many more pathways than other pharmacores). But if you were a trained medicinal chemist today working on improving a drug's potency, and a colleague in your team were to propose using a naphthalene ring as the nucleus to increase potency or binding affinity, they would be met with raised eyebrows and be questioned out the whazoo as to where the hell their logic came from and might even look foolish.
Nonetheless, propranolol is a fantastic medicine in my opinion and I always have a stock of 30 or so if I have to get up in front of large audiences and give presentations...I always though I would outgrow my fear of public speaking by continually doing it and that one day it would just go away....NOPE!